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Five Ways to Foster Lab Safety Culture

Safety culture isn't the mystery some make it out to be

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Are you stuck on what to do for safety culture or how to start? Think about interactions, not grand concepts. And don’t overcomplicate this. Here are some tips for you to try:

Focus on risk

It may be called safety culture, but safety is a binary concept (safe or not) without space to discuss it. Instead, talk about risk’s three factors. Risk = severity x exposure x probability. Each gives opportunities to have meaningful discussions.

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Discuss risk perceptions

Now that you’re discussing risk, talk about risk perceptions. We perceive risks differently—that’s the challenge and opportunity for good talks. Discuss why and how lab members see risks differently. Some are comfortable with certain hazards, but not others.

Practice reinforcing safe culture daily

Stories help us bond, relate, empathize, contextualize, and make sense of our world (or lab). They can help bring about a positive safety culture. They bring meaning to life and pull back the curtain on what we’re thinking, including risk, perceptions, and more. Just the act of sharing stories, even personal ones, has been shown to improve relations.

Although work dominates our time, life is what matters most. So, bring life to your team. Celebrate big and little moments—like someone’s birthday or when flowers are blooming. Encourage talking about life, hopes, and dreams.

Acknowledging the small things catalyzes others to do the same. When someone makes things brighter, recognize it. Perhaps someone re-organizes the tool drawer so they’re easy to find, or maybe they put name tags with funny photos/avatars over the lab coat hooks.

Organize a lab safety culture photo presentation or display. Photos can illuminate and catch safety culture as a moment in time. Set them up like a poster presentation or assemble them into a slide show. Encourage black + white, color, 3D, panoramas, etc. Host a gathering and serve light refreshments (outside of the lab, of course).

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Positive safety culture is about caring for each other. E. Scott Geller has written about this in Actively Caring for People. Think about critical lab incidents—what if someone had cared enough to step in before? Demonstrating care for others creates a culture of caring.

Try empathy first

Disagreements and conflicts happen, often due to different ways of viewing something. Being empathetic is part of being human. Use all three aspects of empathy—cognitive, emotional, and compassionate. Try to understand someone’s pain, feel for them, and do something about it.

Include safety culture and risk in meetings

Make it a behavior, then a habit, and finally a ritual in your meetings. Embed it into your processes—not as an add-on. Create and post a safety culture charter or code of actions that the team co-creates.

Got it—now what?

Ask everyone for their safety culture activity ideas. Weave them into the lab’s work and daily routines. Make it the thread that holds the lab together and produces a beautiful tapestry.

References:

1. Geller, E. Scott and Geller, Krista S. "Actively Caring for People's Safety: How to Cultivate a Brother's/Sister's Keeper Work Culture".


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About the Author

  • Jonathan Klane headshot

    Jonathan Klane, M.S.Ed., CIH, CSP, CHMM, CIT

    Jonathan Klane, M.S.Ed., CIH, CSP, CHMM, CIT has enjoyed an EHS and risk career spanning more than three decades in various roles as a consultant, trainer, learning professional, professor, embedded safety director for two colleges of engineering, writer, and storyteller. He is Business Development, Sr. Manager | Advisor for Draeger, Inc. where he provides consulting services to customers. He is also a PhD candidate in human and social dimensions of science and technology at Arizona State University where he studies our risk perceptions and the effects of storytelling.

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